The history of English

[linguaholic]

Years ago I had to study the history of English. I still remember some bits about it, but most of it just vanished ;(

I remember that the norman conquest has had a major impact on the English language. Moreover, I remember that the French language has been predominant in England for quite some time. I would be grateful if somebody could share some knowledge about the history of English!

[Daedalus]

There's a whole documentary series about it, I posted it a while ago in [this thread].

[linguaholic]

oh, thank you Daedalus! I did not realize that this thread is actually about the history of English, as I was just reading adventures of English and probably did not read the whole thread. Maybe it is also just that the forum is growing bigger and bigger and it get's harder and harder to retain the overview :=)

Anyway, I'm gonna have a look at it now! Still it would be nice if we could at least name the "milestones" of the history of English here (summary of the most important steps).

[rgaz83]

One thing I remember reading is that English itself was considered a "peasant" language for many hundreds of years. Even after the "foreigners" were pushed out, French or Latin was the cultured way to speak and English wasn't considered fit for books, poetry or anything like that. IIRC, The Canterbury Tales helped change that impression, but I could be wrong.

Another thing I recall is that English wasn't actually what we consider to be a language-language for a long time. It took a while to "standardize" it and figure out what words would be what. You might order "eggs" for breakfast in London, while ordering "eyren" in Kent, or something along those lines. I forget, precisely, but there were a lot of dialects for some time.

[wholesaleblogger]

Years ago I had to study the history of English. I still remember some bits about it, but most of it just vanished ;(

I remember that the norman conquest has had a major impact on the English language. Moreover, I remember that the French language has been predominant in England for quite some time. I would be grateful if somebody could share some knowledge about the history of English!

The English language as you say is heavily influenced by French.... Actually, that's wrong, we were invaded by the Norman's and not the French and so our language is influenced by the Norman language.

We share many words that are similar, for example the English word 'Jail' comes from the word 'Gaol' ... 'Guard' from the word 'Garde'

There are many more 

[Kotro]

Just came across this light, funny version of the History of English. Thought you guys might enjoy it:

[Bandannafied]

This is exactly the stuff I am interested in learning about. Thank you for the links to this video, I really enjoyed watching it.

[pandandesign]

The English language as you say is heavily influenced by French.... Actually, that's wrong, we were invaded by the Norman's and not the French and so our language is influenced by the Norman language.

We share many words that are similar, for example the English word 'Jail' comes from the word 'Gaol' ... 'Guard' from the word 'Garde'

There are many more

I agree. I don't think English was originally influenced by French. I would think the history of English has already vanished, which most people do not know or really care about. It is sad though, English is the primary language, but people don't actually know the history of it.

[rodserd]

Pretty much what happened is as follows:

several tens of thousands of years ago, some people settled on the islands known now as Great Britain.  These people divided into several distinct groups, each with their own languages and cultures.  Over time, these groups intermingled and things were shared among their languages....

Then some Romans came and mucked the whole thing up, adding their words to the language (and taking some native words for their own).

Time passes, and the same thing happens with the Vikings, French, and half dozen other languages get mixed in too.  Add in worldwide colonization, and now you have a really confounded language that it is a wonder  we can't agree on how to spell color and armor.

Probably not as funny as the video, I apologize.